One of the great enablers of Mediterranean food is the humble pita pocket. Developed from Pita bread, the Pita Pocket has opened up a range of possibilities in sandwiches. But the Pita is not to everyone’s taste, and you can’t do anything remotely southwestern with a pita pocket.
We want one of the tortillerias to develop a pocket tortilla – the Portilla, if you will.
Silly? Pointless? We think not.
In our Golden West Food Labs, our food concept artists have designed the following dishes to use a tortilla pocket:
1. Taco pockets from sliced halves of Portillas
2. Quesadilla pockets, with plenty of cheese but room for more sautéed vegetables
3. Taco salads served with pocket tortillas. Scoop forkfulls of the salad into the portillas, eat.
4. Fajita Pockets
5. Carne Asada Pockets – think a Mexican gyro, but with chunks of Carne Asada, Pico de gallo, cilantro, and maybe a Siracha sauce.
6. Stuffed portillas deep-fried, sort of a flatish chimichanga.
It’s easier and neater than tacos, and smaller and lighter than burritos. It’s a gaping hole in the Tex-Mex menu, and an idea whose time has come. I’m going to Carrillo’s in San Fernando next week, and I’m on a mission.